UTM Graduate traces her exciting career in biopharma to lessons learned as a student and an athlete.
While working on her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences from University of South Florida on a full soccer scholarship, Leticia Skeete found that her career as a student athlete was inspiring new direction.
“As an athlete, we’re focused on driving performance — how can we help each other, how can we help the community?” says Skeete, who leaned into that mindset to change her career goal in her third year from becoming a medical practitioner to exploring the role of business in health care.
As a result, Skeete applied to the Master of Management of Innovation (MMI) program at UTM, impressed by its unique integration of STEM-based innovation and core business concepts.
Skeete says the program was essential to building her professional reputation and skillset.
“Having a strong business acumen, especially in the health sciences, is extremely attractive because you need to understand how science applies to tangible outcomes for the populations you hope to eventually serve,” she says. “MMI is unique in that it also focuses on intangibles like professional development (because) the thing that will always set you apart is how you present yourself professionally and your ability to communicate effectively.”
MMI’s integrated internship was also instrumental in helping Skeete make connections in the pharmaceutical industry, in which she has worked for the past six years.
“Biopharma allows you to both be connected to science if you’re passionate about it, but also allows you to accelerate that business mindset because you’re pulled to think outside the box and strategically,” says Skeete.
She is currently Chief-of-Staff of Medical Strategy and Performance at GSK, a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with locations across the world.
“I focus on how we can accelerate medical strategy as a core pillar of what enhances the pharmaceutical business because raising understanding around our high-quality medicines and vaccines is foundational in driving overall business performance,” she says. “In our department we don’t define our impact by sales, it’s about the eventual patient benefit we seek to enhance by closing the knowledge gap around our science to healthcare professionals that makes the difference.”
Skeete says she hopes new graduates will be inspired by her story to “give yourself the grace to make mistakes and grow” and to maximize opportunities as they come, even if they aren’t part of your original plan.
She says she is also still committed to the teamwork and diverse approach she learned as captain of the NCAA Division I women’s soccer team, aspiring to make space for her peers in the biopharma industry. As part of the effort, she is working with the GSK Employee Resource Group to internally elevate the voices of Black professionals and identify opportunities where the company can leverage diverse opinions to better serve their consumer base.
“I don’t always have to be the loudest voice at the table,” Skeete says of being a Black woman in the pharmaceutical industry. “But what I’ve always strived to do was ensure my idea is still shared because there are people who look like me on the other side of our medicines and vaccines that will benefit from my input.”